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Howard White traces out a bit of Bacon\u2019s lineage as a political philosopher: <\/p>\n
\u201cYoung Hobbes had accompanied Bacon on some of his walks, and Bacon delighted in his company. And Hobbes was to establish a system of political philosophy on principles of motion, precisely as Bacon ahd urged, taking his bearing by human appetites and desires.\u201d While \u201cBacon would have considered Hobbes\u2019 effort premature,\u201d Hobbes\u2019 formulation of two maxims of human nature \u2013 the concuspicible, desire for appropriation; the rational, avoiding dissolution \u2013 had strong \u201caffinity with Bacon\u2019s natural appetite and natural repugnance.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rousseau, for his pat, claimed that \u201cperhaps the greatest philosopher who ever lived was Lord Chancellor of England.\u201d Rousseau was not an admirer of Hobbes, nor was he interested in the dissemination of science, but he considered Bacon exalted: his \u201ceage spirit soared.\u201d Like Bacon Rousseau saw himself as \u201ca voluntary outcast,\u201d exiled and hoping for the appearance of Prometheus. But \u201cthe dependence of Rousseau on Bacon is by no means confined to the striking simliarity in the role of the philosopher or the solitary promeneur. In his discussion of civil religion, Rousseau acknowledges that only Hobbes has seen the necessity to unite church and state under political control. In this, however, Hobbes followed Bacon and, indeed, Machiavelli, as Rousseau certainly knew. Rousseau\u2019s own civil religion, with men living in peace, yet capable of uniting ruthlessly against the enemies of their civil religion, bears a close correspondence to that of Bacon.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Howard White traces out a bit of Bacon\u2019s lineage as a political philosopher: \u201cYoung Hobbes had accompanied Bacon on some of his walks, and Bacon delighted in his company. And Hobbes was to establish a system of political philosophy on principles of motion, precisely as Bacon ahd urged, taking his bearing by human appetites and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"yoast_head":"\n